[1] Sculptures of headdressed figures holding inert were-jaguar babies appear often in the Olmec archaeological record, from the smallest of figurines to the huge table-top thrones such as La Venta Altar 5.

Some researchers, focusing on the symbolic cave surrounding the figure on Altar 5 believe that these sculptures relate to myths of spiritual journeys or human origins.

[4] The statue was discovered 16 July 1965 in near Jesús Carranza, Veracruz, by two local children, Rosa and Severiano Paschal Manuel.

After promising to keep the statue on display and to build a local school, the archaeologists moved the sculpture to the Xalapa Museum of Anthropology, in Veracruz.

[5] Five years later, in October 1970, the statue was stolen from the museum, only later to be found in a motel room in San Antonio, Texas; it had been apparently too famous to be sold on the black market.